I haven’t had the privilege of meeting this first journalist I want to show appreciation to, but I have spoken to him on the phone numerous times and he has been amazing to keep in touch with me over the last 1 1/2 years since the death of my son. His name is Michael M. Phillips with the Wall Street Journal. He has done five tours in Iraq (between 2003-2006) as an embedded journalist and he leaves next week for his 11th trip to Afghanistan (please pray for his safety). He believes in what he writes about and he truly cares for our troops. I know this because he wrote an article about Chad’s buddies and how they, as well as the Marine Corps, are helping them get through the tragedy of losing one of their own. It took over a year for me to read the article he wrote in the WSJ in it’s entirety, but I finally did recently. It broke my heart, yes, but it also showed me a side to my bonus boys that I needed to see at that moment. I felt like Mr. Phillips did an amazing job with something so difficult. He has written a book that I plan to read, but haven’t yet, called “The Gift of Valor”. I would recommend you read it if you get the chance. I’ve read pieces of it and it looks to be another great story by Michael Phillips. When I first spoke to him I explained our idea for this foundation and he said once we had more information and got it off the ground to let him know. I did just that and almost immediately responded to let me know he had read our website. That meant so much to us.
We have a local news anchor, Neile Jones of KNWA, that came to our house to do an interview with us about Chad and about Wings for Our Troops. She was so caring and we truly felt that she was hurting with us. She is so sweet that she will send me a text every now and then just to see how we are doing. We actually saw her at a charity gala recently and she remembered us and spoke. I don’t know about you, but I rarely see that these days. It means a lot when people who are in the spotlight and as busy as I know these guys are to care enough to remember. Neile also attended a fundraiser Chad’s friends had in his memory for the Wounded Warrior Project last year and it was on a Saturday when she could have just been spending time doing her own thing.
You know, it can be easy sometimes to rush to judgement with people because they have to report on the hard stuff to sometimes link them up to those stories in a negative way. I have to admit I have probably done that before myself, but these two journalist/anchor have certainly taught me a very valuable lesson. I will try to remember that sometimes their stories are hard for them to actually cover, but they do it with conviction and honesty and when they get the chance to, they show they care.
I just want to publicly thank them both for making such a difference and especially to Michael for all you are doing with and for our troops. You are making a difference. Even if others don’t always see the good you are trying to do, please know there are others out there that do see it.